Foreign Relations

The Meiji leaders also modernized foreign policy, an
important
step in making Japan a full member of the international
community.
The traditional East Asia worldview was based not on an
international society of national units but on cultural
distinctions and tributary relationships. Monks, scholars,
and
artists, rather than professional diplomatic envoys, had
generally
served as the conveyors of foreign policy. Foreign
relations were
related more to the sovereign's desires than to the public
interest. For Japan to emerge from the feudal period, it
had to
avoid the fate of other Asian countries by establishing
genuine
national independence and equality. The Meiji oligarchy
was aware
of Western progress, and "learning missions" were sent
abroad to
absorb as much of it as possible. One such mission, led by
Iwakura,
Kido, and Okubo and containing forty-eight members in
total, spent
two years (1871-73) touring the United States and Europe,
studying
government institutions, courts, prison systems, schools,
the
import-export business, factories, shipyards, glass
plants, mines,
and other enterprises. Upon returning, mission members
called for
domestic reforms that would help Japan catch up with the
West. The
revision of unequal treaties forced on Japan became a top
priority.
The returned envoys also sketched a new vision for a
modernized
Japan's leadership role in Asia, but they realized that
this role
required that Japan develop its national strength,
cultivate
nationalism among the population, and carefully craft
policies
toward potential enemies. No longer could Westerners be
seen as
"barbarians," for example. In time, Japan formed a corps
of
professional diplomats.

Although he never assumed a government post, another
influential Meiji period figure was Fukuzawa Yukichi
(1835-1901).
He was a prolific writer on many subjects, the founder of
schools
and a newspaper, and, above all, an educator bent on
impressing his
fellow Japanese with the merits of Westernization.

Japan was shortly to test its new world outlook.
Disputes with
China over sovereignty of the Ryukyu Islands, with Russia
over
sovereignty of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, and with
Korea over
the Korean court's refusal to recognize the new Meiji
government
and its envoys were all settled diplomatically between
1874 and
1876. Military threats had been made in the Chinese and
Korean
disputes, and it seemed to many that Japan would soon use
military
means to achieve its goals.

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